What could of been
by BlueShadowDragon
Summary: What if Connie couldn't be saved? What if she was stuck to fend for herself in the Land of Wonders?
1. Chapter 1

Introduction

Hey all! First off I really like Enid Blyton's tales, especially the 'Far away tree' stories. But one thing has always really bugged me about them, and that's the fact that no matter what shit the characters got into they always found some way out. No one got hurt, no one got left behind and there were no real lasting problems from whatever happened. Even when Connie lost her voice she got it back! It made me a little annoyed in my younger years that everything seemed to go their way.

So I asked myself, _what if it didn't?_ What if for, for once, something went wrong? In fact not just wrong but horribly, irreversibly wrong. This story is about the third book when Curious Connie comes to stay. For those of you who haven't read that one Connie is taken to tea at Moonface's house but is a spoilt brat and leaves. She climbs the ladder and gets stuck in a different world when it moves. Of course the others suddenly find a way to get her back and everything is great. But what is they hadn't?

Let's find out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter one: Stranded

"_The Land of Marvels has gone," he said. "And the next land hasn't even come yet. I don't know what it will be either. Well – Connie's gone with the Land of Marvels. She would do a silly thing like that!"_

_Bessie went pale. "But what can we do about it?" she said. "Whatever can we do?" We've in charge of her, you know. We simply can't let her go like this. We must find her somehow."_

"_How can we?" said Silky. "You know that once a Land has moved on, it doesn't come back for ages. Connie will have to stay there. I don't see that it matters, anyway. She's not a very nice person."_

_From The Folk of the Faraway Tree_

"But we have to do something!" cried Jo. He was starting to feel the panic setting in now. Connie was gone. It was his fault, he knew it.

Moonface looked grave but firm. "There's nothing we can do Jo, you of all people should know that."

Beside him Fanny began to silently cry. Bessie, pale as a sheet now, looked to Jo. "Jo... what do we do now?". Jo stood silent, staring at the ladder as if Connie would come down it at any minute. How desperately he wished it was true.

"...Jo?..." Fanny's voice was small and quivered.

He stared at her with blank eyes.

"...I don't know."

Connie stood still. So still she could of been a stone angel in an old church yard, if stone angels could be imagined dressed in a dirty, ragged white party dress and a mouth open so wide a gold fish would be proud. She hadn't been able to move when she'd heard the wind whine, or when witches and goblins and hundreds of other strange little creatures had started to pour down the hole in the ground back to the tree. To be honest she hadn't understood, at the time, what on earth (if she was even still on earth) was going on. But she understood now. She understood very well.

Suddenly she was screaming. Why had she come up here? Why wasn't she warned? A small knot of locals stopped and stared at the little screaming child. But Connie didn't notice. She was on the ground now thumping the grass, trying to dig it up with her hands. This was a trick! Holes did not just disappear! Any minute not she would hit a trap door, fall through and it and be back with her cousins. But this was no trick and Connie found nothing but dirt beneath the dry landscape.

The little knot of onlookers was fast becoming bigger as people became aware of the little (now very dirty) child, who apparently was quite crazed."Poor mite" whispered one witch to her neighbour, "look at her clothes. Must be a beggar child". "Where's the policeman" cried a middle sized Nome. "Someone should fetch him". Connie's ears pricked themselves up at this and for the first time she noticed the crowds she was attracting. It was a crowd of the strangest and, to frightened little Connie the scariest, people the little girl had ever seen. And they wanted to get the police on her! She'd heard them! Without a second thought Connie jumped to her feet and ran. The child was vaguely aware of people shouting, but she didn't care. She ran, through the grass, over the path and through part of a town and didn't stop till her sides ached.

It was then that the terrible thought came to Connie. She did not know where she was. What if the ladder came back and she wasn't there for it. It had, after all, disappeared quite suddenly. What if it came back suddenly too, and she wasn't there for it. She span around... then stopped dead. Which way had she come from? Connie didn't recognise any of these roads. The little girl then realised that she carelessly hadn't looked where she was going. She was lost.

Connie sat with her back against a tree and cried.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Caring to fall

_Hi Everybody! Sorry this post is so late. The story is all in my head but it turns out getting it to make sense on paper is harder than I thought. ;) Oh well.._

_Reviews are always helpful so please review away!_

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Connie awoke with her back on the dirty ground looking up into a green moving sky. For a moment she couldn't remember where she was. Then an acorn fell on her head and brought her back to earth with a thump. She was in the same little knot of trees she had hidden in earlier, though she couldn't remember falling to sleep there. Connie shook her bobbed blond head and tried to gather her thoughts. She was lost and alone in a strange land called... what had the others called it?...land of marvels or something? As she became fully awake the enormity of her situation hit her, but she didn't have enough tears left to cry anymore. Anyway, thought Connie tears were only useful if people were around to fuss over you and get what you want, and the only people round here were strange and magical and... it suddenly hit Connie like a thunder clap. Magic had got her here! Could magic also get her home? There must be someone who could help her.

Connie sat under the trees for a few minutes more then stood up and scrabbled out, adding mud to her already ink stained, torn dress. She wished she could get better clothes before meeting these people but it couldn't be helped.

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Jo, Bessie and Fanny sat in Moonface's little round house. Jo looked at Fanny, who was still crying softly, curled up against him, and Bessie's eyes were getting watery too. Jo looked at them and thought that they were very composed compared to the screaming sobbing ball he wanted to be. But he had to keep it together. They had always found a way around problems in their adventures. He thought hard about all the trouble they had got out of over the past couple of years. There was the time they had got stuck in the Land Of Take What You Want and had flown an aeroplane home. And the time they had been taken prisoner by a wizard in a strange land and had flown home on a table. Jo thought of the other times he and his sisters had been captured. Surely there was a way to get Connie back.

" Maybe Moonface has had time to think of something" thought Jo. "He always finds a way to help". Jo turned to Moonface but one look told him that Connie was far from his mind. The round headed man was busily making tea and, to Jo's slight surprise, whistling a jolly tune under his breath. There was even a little smile on his lips. "Moonface?" said Jo. "Moonface I think I might of thought of a way...".

"Tea first Jo! Tea first" cried Moonface. He was beaming now, as he set the tray down and grabbed a chair. Jo stared at him. Didn't he realise how important this was? Connie was all alone. She could be captured or hurt. She didn't know anyone! He was just about to try again when Silky came back in carrying a small basket of biscuits and cakes. "Here we go everyone! Tuck in!" she said, and Jo noticed that _she_ didn't look overly upset either. He looked at the confusion in his sisters eyes and then back and Silky and Moonface, drinking tea and eating cake. And suddenly he found that his sadness was being replaced with annoyance.

Jo cleared his throat for attention. "Moonface, Is it possible to fly to Connie?". Moonface stared at Jo for a second before answering. "Of course not Jo. Where ever did you get such an idea?"

"Because we flew from other lands to get home remember?" said Jo. Bessie sat up. "Of course! Jo you're a genius!" she cried hugging him. But Silky shook her head. "It's one thing to fly from a magical land, but trying to find a land from here? It is almost impossible." She sipped her tea, then turned back to Moonface. Jo felt Bessie slump again and felt a bit angry. Silky could a least of let her down gently. Instead she had sounded almost as if she did not care.

Jo thought again. Then he gave a start. Oh of course! Why hadn't he thought of it sooner!

"I'VE GOT IT!" yelled Jo "we can use magic!"

"How do you mean Jo?" asked Bessie

"Remember when I was lost in that snow world? You made some magic with the three bears to get me back! Moonface can't we do that?"

"Jo that took a lot of power. It would take all sorts of trouble to make. " He said off handily.

Jo got up angrily.

"Well..don't you think she's worth the trouble?" she said.

"No not really."

Everything went deadly quiet. Even Fanny stopped sobbing as the three children stirred at Moonface. Jo went pale. He could hardly believe what he was hearing.

"Wh-what did you say?"

Silky looked at Jo pityingly "Jo, dear, look at it this way. She wasn't a nice person, no one will miss her or really make the effort to get her back. So what are you worrying for?".

"I'M PRETTY SURE HER MOTHER WILL!" Shouted Jo. " AND WHAT ABOUT MY MOTHER? WHAT AM I SOPPOST TO TELL HER?"

"Oh I knew I forgot something! Just give her this."

Silky rummaged in her basket for a moment then brought out a small blue flask which she gave to Jo. Jo turned in over in his hands. It appeared to be full of a strangely warm liquid.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's a Forgetting potion. Just write Connie's name on a piece of paper and put it in the bottle. Get your mother to drink it and she will forget Connie ever existed. "

Jo took a long look at Silky. She seemed so sure and calm. So did Moonface. Maybe they were right. He could give this to his mother and she wouldn't ever have to know what happened. They would go on living in the little cottage in blissful unawareness. But the next second Jo realised what a terrible thing it was to do.

"NO!" He slammed the bottle back on the table "FORGETTING WON'T SOLVE ANYTHING! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU COULD EVEN SUGEST IT! I NEED YOU TO HELP ME GET CONNIE BACK"

Moonface looked up, annoyed at last "I told you Jo! I will take too much power than I'm willing to conjure. Leave her there. She was a brat anyway!"

Jo stood staring at Moonface, hardly able to believe his ears. "So that's it, is it then? Connie can be rescued but you are just not bothered"

Suddenly he couldn't stand to be there anymore.

"Come on girls. Were leaving."

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Connie huddled in an ally way behind a dustbin. Her search for help had not gone as well as hoped. It had started all fine. She had got to town and asked the very first person she met (An elderly woman with long purple hair) how to get to the enchanted woods. But the old lady was a bit deaf and it took Connie several tries to get her to understand what she wanted. It had been a waste of time anyway as the woman had had no idea where the woods were. Even worse, she had begun to question Connie. Was she lost? Was she a runaway? Did she want the police? Connie had scampered. Her second attempted hadn't gone any better. She had asked... well she wasn't quite sure what it was but it was short and fat with long arms and legs and a big nose. He _had_ known the woods but informed her that they wouldn't be back for quite some time and no he didn't know another way there and did she need a new home? Connie had been grabbed by the creature but she had screamed so loudly that he had let go to cover his over large ears. On the third try she hadn't even got to her question as the tall cloaked man (with an overly dressed woman on his arm) tried to hit her with his cane and told Connie he had nothing to give her and to clear off before he called the guards. That was why Connie was now cowering behind the bins, tears blurring her eyes. She wanted to go home. She wanted her Mother. But to get her she needed to get back to the woods. And for that she had to try again. Connie poked her head out then walked out the ally and down the path. She avoided several people, looking for the ones most likely to help her when she stopped by a street stand. It was an unusual stand even for this town. The stand it's self wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just the usually wooden affair, and the person behind it (a young pixie girl) was not overly strange, considering where they were. No it was the enormous blue and grey tabby cat sitting on the table that caught Connie's eye. It really was huge, and had such intelligent eyes that Connie felt sure it could talk. So it proved has the cat suddenly said "Well, do you want your future told or not?"

Connie was very taken aback and stupidly blurted out "You can talk!"

"Of course I can talk you ignorant girl! How else am I soppost to tell fortunes?"

"Fortunes?"

"The sign girl! The sign!"

It was then that Connie first noticed the small sign pinned to the wood of the stand.

**MAVISIMO THE AMAZING FORTUNE**

**TELLING CAT**

**!FIND YOUR FUTURE TODAY!**

**1 PENNY**

**(NO REFUNDS)**

"Oh !" said Connie "I don't have a penny"

The cat turned and looked and the pixie. She was still snoring behind the counter, her tiny feet resting on the stand. Quickly he turned back to Connie and whispered to her. "O.k. Here is the thing. I'm not supposed to do freebies. If she knew about this "(he nodded in the pixies direction)"I'd be for it. But, uh, I have thing about ribbons, great for chasing you see, and you seem to have a rather nice one on your pretty little head. soooo what about we have a little trade huh? "

Connie thought about it. On the one hand it would be very useful to know her future. Mavisimo might be able to tell her if she would get home, even maybe how she could do it! On the other hand he might be a cheap fraudster but if a hair ribbon was all it would cost...

"Okay, you have a deal!". Connie pulled out the ribbon and handed it to the cat, who took it in his mouth and hid it in the bag behind the table.

"Palm please" he said and Connie held out her hand to him. Mavisimo stared deeply into it and then began.

"I see in your future that you are going to choose the easy but long way only to get hurt. You won't find what you _want_ but if the stars go right you might find what you _need_." He looked even harder than before then looked at Connie " You, miss, have a lot of hardships ahead of you." The cat then yawned, stretched and settled down.

"But-but wait! Do I find my way home?" stuttered Connie.

"Sorry only one fortune a day." Yawned the Cat.

Connie angrily picked up the cat "But I must know! All you gave me was a bunch of rubbish! How is it supposed to help me!"

"HEY. Let me go!" Yowled the cat. Mavisimo began to wiggle and spit. He made such a fuss that the pixie, at long last, woke up.

"HERE! WHAT YOU THINK YOU DOIN'!" she yelled. "YOU AOUGT TA BE BEAT! PICKIN' ON A LITTLE CAT LIKE THAT!"

Connie was so scared she did the only thing she could. She threw the cat hard at the pixie and as they collided with a pitiful yowl and a "HEY" she ran. Through the streets she ran, not wanting to stop. She couldn't trust anyone here! Why WHY hadn't she listened to Jo and stayed away from the stupid ladder? Connie finally ran out of breath and had to stop... amazingly right in from of a ladder. At first Connie was too puffed out to notice anything unusual about the object but soon she noticed it was unusually tall. She leaned her head back and saw it go up and up and up so far that it became a blur. So high it went through the clouds. Just like I did thought Connie. Maybe this ladder would lead somewhere better, maybe even home. Sure, she had come up from the ground but everything else in this land was so strange that is might just be true. Connie started straight away. There was no time to lose. Though if she had weighted a little longer she may of noticed the little bronze plate at the bottom with words engraved on it. **THE NEVER ENDING LADDER**.

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Jo stood on the edge of the enchanted woods rooted to the spot. There in front of him was the so familiar ditch, the one they jumped over every time they came and went from the forest. Then came the worn path through the buttercup fields and there, about a hundred meters away, stood the cottage. and inside the cottage... Jo's stomach clenched again. It had every time he looked at the house. Because he knew who was in there. He wished with all his might that he could be anywhere else right now. Anywhere. And for a brief, mad second he considered running as fast as he could back into the woods and never coming back. But one look at his young sisters white faces made him stay. They were more scared of facing home then he was. Of telling Mother.

He had never felt so guilty before. His mother had trusted him to keep them safe, it was His responsibility

Jo looked back at the cottage, stood still a minute longer, then jumped the ditch. He couldn't put it off any longer. Mother needed to know.

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Connie was tired, hungry and completely exhausted. This ladder went nowhere! She had climbed for hours and nothing had happened. She must be higher than even the Far Away Tree by now. The view below her had been amazing at first. She had been able to see the whole town and then the surrounding country and even a glimpse of the next town over. But she was too scared to look down now. It was too far! To make matters worse it had begun to rain and Connie soon became very cold in her ruined clothes. Her hair, no longer held in place, flopped over her eyes. But she did not care. She was getting more and more sleepy, clumsy. Connie didn't know how much longer she could hold on. Then her shoe slipped out of place and she gave up. She fell though the air, the rain still falling too. As Mavisimo had said, she was about to go a very long way.


End file.
